One Bay Area Grant

Submitted by jadmin on November 19, 2012 - 10:25pm

The OneBayArea Grant Program (OBAG) establishes program commitments and policies for investing roughly $800 million over the four-year Cycle 2 period (FY’s 2012-13 through 2015-16), funded through continuations of the current surface transportation legislation currently known as SAFETEA (the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act) or the new surface transportation authorization currently under congressional consideration.

The OneBayArea Grant Program is a new funding approach that better integrates the region’s federal transportation program with California’s climate law (Senate Bill 375, Steinberg, 2008) and the Sustainable Communities Strategy. Funding distribution to the counties will consider progress toward achieving local land-use and housing policies by:

  • Rewarding jurisdictions that accept housing allocations through the Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA) process and produce housing using transportation dollars as incentives.
  • Supporting the Sustainable Communities Strategy for the Bay Area by promoting transportation investments in Priority Development Areas (PDAs) and by initiating a pilot program that will support open space preservation in Priority Conservation Areas (PCA).
  • Providing a higher proportion of funding to local agencies and additional investment flexibility by eliminating required program investment targets. The OBAG program allows flexibility to invest in transportation categories such as Transportation for Livable Communities, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, local streets and roads preservation, and planning activities, while also providing specific funding opportunities for Safe Routes to School (SR2S) and Priority Conservation Areas
 
Napa One Bay Area Grant Program
 
NCTPA is implementing the OneBayArea Grant (OBAG) Program that was developed to support California’s climate law (Senate Bill 375, Steinberg, 2008), which requires a Sustainable Communities Strategy, an integrated land use and transportation plan that all metropolitan regions in California must complete under Senate Bill 375. OBAG is funded by the federal surface transportation act currently known as Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21).

As part of this OBAG implementation, NCTPA is estimated to receive approximately $4.4 million to allocate throughout Napa County for local streets and roads, bicycle and pedestrian projects and transit oriented development. Per the OBAG requirements, NCTPA must spend 50 percent of the funds in priority development areas (PDAs). See the map of PDAs in Napa County.

Call for Projects!

In May 2011, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) approved the One Bay Area Grant (OBAG) by passing resolution 4035. On October 17th the NCTPA Board released a call for projects to program funding for the Regional Transportation Plan Cycle 2 funds for FY’s 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16.

Applications for funding must be prepared by eligible project sponsors and delivered to Eliot Hurwitz ehurwitz@nctpa.net no later than 5:00 PM Friday, December 14th 2012.

Project sponsors must have a master agreement with Caltrans to receive federal transportation funding and must also meet all the minimum requirements as established in MTC's resolution 4035 and the NCTPA application instructions. If you do not meet these requirements you must partner with an agency that does. All projects are subject to an 11.47% local funding match requirement.

NCTPA is also accepting applications for Priority Conservation Area (Pilot Program) and programming Safe Routes to Schools (Non-infrastructure) program funds at the same time as OBAG. These funds are considered separate from OBAG and do not have to meet the same requirements.

Once a proposed project is selected for approval by the NCTPA board (tentatively March 2013) project sponsors will be subject to the regional project funding delivery policy established in MTC's resolution 3606.

Estimated funding by program category for the next 4 years:

Funding Amount
Surface Transportation Program (STP) $2,114,000
Congestion Mitigation/ Air Quality Program (CMAQ) $1,443,000
Transportation Alternatives (TA) $431,000
Safe Routes to School (SR2S) $420,000
Total $4,408,000

 

For more information or to provide comments

We would like to receive your input on the project selection process that we have outlined for OBAG as well as on the types of projects that you would like to see funded. We can also assist with sharing the information with potential project sponsors such as the Cities of Napa, American Canyon, St. Helena, Calistoga, Town of Yountville and the County of Napa.

A Public Workshop on One Bay Area Grant funding: Wednesday, November 28th at 6:00 PM.

Location: Napa Main Library Community Room, 580 Coombs Street, Napa, CA 94559

Call for Projects Schedule

Date Action
October 17, 2012 NCTPA Releases call for projects
October – December 2012 Public Outreach /Advisory Committees
December 12, 2012 Applications due to NCTPA
December 2012 – February 2013 Advisory Committee Review /Approval
March 2013 (tentative) NCTPA Board Approve Projects
October 2013 Funds Available

The NCTPA Board opened a call for OBAG Cycle 2 projects at their October 17, 2012 meeting.  Project submittals were due to NCTPA by 5:00 PM on December 14, 2012. 

NCTPA received 18 project submittals totaling $15.7 million dollars.  Of the 18 projects, 7 of them, totaling $8 million dollars, met the PDA minimum requirement of $2 million dollars.  The NCTPA TAC, with representation from all 6 jurisdictions, acts as the review committee for OBAG program.  Over the last several months the TAC has been reviewing OBAG projects and after careful consideration, forwarded the final list of projects for the Board’s approval. The NCTPA Board approved the projects on March 20, 2013.

Name

Description

Funding

American Canyon Eucalyptus Drive Realignment Complete Street Elements

Create complete street areas for pedestrians and bicyclists into the American Canyon PDA along existing Eucalyptus Drive and the new realignment.

$1,153,928

City of Napa California Roundabouts

Create roundabouts at the intersection of California and First Street and California and Second Street to improve the level of service. 

$1,740,261

Silverado Trail Phase “H” Overlay

Pavement overlay on Silverado Trail from Howell Mountain to Zinfandel Lane

$793,811

City of Napa North/South Bike Lane

Construct a Class II bike lane on California Blvd. between Pueblo Ave. and Permanente Way. 

$300,000

 

Total

$3,988,000

The Safe Route to School Program is not included in the above table and will go to the Board for approval in May 2013.